Portsmouth to Santander ferry

[Engineer]

It’s worse when there are a few coaches full of school kids on exchange trips because the little bastards kept pestering us to go to the bar or buy cigarettes for them

Last August the out trip was great, I didn’t realise but we must have got a quiet day, sun shining, flat calm, space in the restaurant, no queues, spotted whales and dolphins, it was a cool trip return was frankly unpleasant, purely down to the ship being packed to the gunwhales or whatever the nautical phrase is?

My advice is to find the quiet days and organise your trip around them.

 

[Pops]

Hi,

You have to have a cabin, if you decide to go and want a discount, PM me for my Club Voyage membership code.

That's very kind of you Gadget, I may well take you up on the offer.

Thanks for all the replies, it looks like Ferry to Santander is the way to go and just suck up the price whilst treating it all as part of the holiday.

 

[Traffic893]

We are off mid June, Portsmouth to Le Harve,with cabin, run down to the South coast with overnighter half way. Weeks accommodation, half an hour away from French F1 (tickets bought) and working our way back up to return Roscoff to Plymouth.
Ferry across booked 2 days before due at accommodation and return booked for 6 days after we leave accommodation. All through Eurocamp £400

 

[Davel]

Side stand.

Last year we did Plymouth to Santander and back via Roscoff.

We also did a return trip through the tunnel

This year we'd going via the tunnel and sailing back from Santander.

If you can, go for a four berth larger cabin.

I'm claustrophobic so wanted a window. But they don't open!

I'd have preferred to sail both ways and it is a great way to de-stress.

Either route is an absolute doddle.

Oh and we thought the economy breakfast was pretty shite but the restaurant one was about £20 - rip off!

 

[uncle dick]

Side stand or centre stand for the bike? It's a worry

Andres

My son's 650GS side stand snapped like a carrot when they tied it down in Roscoff last year. Only 20 miles home from Plymouth and a good job too with no clutch lever etc. Have to say, Brittany Ferries were great; sent a quote and they paid in 3 days.

 

[JerseyNeil]

Could be worse......

I have to get the Commodore Clipper from Jersey to Portsmouth before getting on BF to Bilbao in September. I rode from St Malo to Copenhagen last year and had to do 2x 500 miles days on the autobahn. vowed never to ride motorways on the bike again unless I have no choice.

Being a bit of a sea dog I'm actually looking forward to it.

 

[Deleted account 220214001]

I rode from St Malo to Copenhagen last year and had to do 2x 500 miles days on the autobahn. vowed never to ride motorways on the bike again unless I have no choice.

I so totally agree. If they were totally empty and had no cameras on them, It'd be fine, but they aren't and they do.

A ride down through France would have to be a leisurely backroad ride for me, otherwise the Ferry. But the Ferry home is a must, really because having done it in a car several times, the drive home is a killer, boring and an awful way to end a good holiday.

 

[Dirty Ming]

Have used the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and back several times and never had a problem tying the bike down, however be careful when you go down to get the bike ready for leaving the ferry as everyone tries to get there first, meaning huge queues on the staircases before they open the doors into the car decks. It gets bloody hot if you've got al your bike gear on. You'll have plenty of time once you're by the bike to get kitted up but alas not much space as they do cram vehicles in - we had about 200 bikes on the deck as it was the week leading up to the Aragon MotoGP race last year and there were a couple of coaches, motorhomes and lorries all wedged in and around the bikes. Beware of trip wires running along the deck as it's easy to get your sidestand caught in them or even your boot. As said before, watch out for the metal mushrooms embedded in the deck when moving your bike around. Sod's ;aw says you'll have to do a U-turn to get off, often fully loaded in full view of your peers whilst high on exhaust fumes from 200 other vehicles and something will go wrong........have seen a few bikes dropped like this so go careful and if in doubt move to a safe area while others get off first. I found if you're going abroad more than once in a year then the Club Voyage scheme is worth it. Cost me £140 for the France membership and I saved about £100 on the cost of the crossing plus there's a complimentary cabin on day crossings (which we're coming back on) and free breakfast in the restaurant. Plus as a member you can pre-book a table in the restaurant for the evening crossing before you leave, meaning you don't have to queue once you're on for the remaining tables.
Treat it as day one of your holiday, have a meal and a few beers, sleep well and you're ready to go once you've had a brekkie.

 

[gspod]

That's very kind of you Gadget, I may well take you up on the offer.

Thanks for all the replies, it looks like Ferry to Santander is the way to go and just suck up the price whilst treating it all as part of the holiday.

My advice, like a lot on here, is to go for an outside cabin - bigger the better - with a big window. One good reason is that if the Bay of Biscay blows a hooly you can focus on the horizon and still be close to your own toilet .

We find BF excellent. The food is way better than any gastro pub with similar prices - a bottle of 2005 Hautes Cotes de Beaune for £25, you wouldn’t get that in any restaurant in the UK

Enjoy

 

[Wonkey donkey]

I saw a tip on another thread that I don't think has been mentioned on this. Having been fleeced for our trip last August, about £600 each, I read that if you phone Brittany ferries and booked the accommodation with them it works out far cheaper than booking the ferry and independently booking hotels.

I did a dummy booking on their website, as I didn't want to waste someone's time in the call centre, and basically got 5 nights accommodation inc ferry and cabin for less than booking the ferry and cabin only.

Might be worth a look

 

[Pops]

Thanks guys some great advice there.
Definitely worth looking at booking accommodation Wonkey Donkey, we may have a night in Santander after the crossing so if it works out as a saving on the ferry we may book that through BF. Worth a look anyway.
Good advice about securing the bike and using the car deck, thanks Dirty Ming.

 

[Popell]

@wonkey
I have two bookings total of 6 bikes(they can only cope with up to 4 bikes on a single booking)
Had it priced through club voyage, member plus associate member (apparently necessary)
Think we saved about 450 doing club voyage membership.

However, did try pricing to include three nights in Fuente de, one of their listed hotels (I’d actually already booked via booking.con)
The price for the first booking went from 800ish to 2100!, I didn’t bother asking them to check the second booking...

So it didn’t work out for me in this instance.

Good tip about booking table before sailing, ta

 

[Davey B]

Give them a ring, their call centre staff are great. In December I booked a group of 6 of us in two cabins for travel next week. The lady spent 15 minutes working out whether it would be cheaper if I joined the club voyage thing or not. She then looked at the all in holiday offer....ferry, cabin and at least 2 nights in a hotel...again not as cheap but she tried. (Other things to add to the mix if you're planning to ride down are the miles you add that take you closer to your next service...600 miles is obviously 10% of of the way to a 6k service, if you get main dealer servicing that is maybe £20-£25...on top of squaring off tyre wear, snacks, hotels, tolls fuel etc. (If you have 3 or 4 weeks and the ride thru France is part of the journey, fine, but for most, getting to the area they are visiting is what it's about))


Edit, odd isn't it....defo cheaper without club voyage for us....but not for the chap above.

 

[Popell]

Give them a ring, their call centre staff are great. In December I booked a group of 6 of us in two cabins for travel next week. The lady spent 15 minutes working out whether it would be cheaper if I joined the club voyage thing or not. She then looked at the all in holiday offer....ferry, cabin and at least 2 nights in a hotel...again not as cheap but she tried. (Other things to add to the mix if you're planning to ride down are the miles you add that take you closer to your next service...600 miles is obviously 10% of of the way to a 6k service, if you get main dealer servicing that is maybe £20-£25...on top of squaring off tyre wear, snacks, hotels, tolls fuel etc. (If you have 3 or 4 weeks and the ride thru France is part of the journey, fine, but for most, getting to the area they are visiting is what it's about))


Edit, odd isn't it....defo cheaper without club voyage for us....but not for the chap above.

Strange that CV didn't offer any benefit - you must have got a really good price to start with!
Break down of our trip/bookings
Booking 1
2 Cabins(4 berth but 2 in each)
4 Bikes
Total £1460
Booking 2
2 Cabins (2berth with one[snorers] in each)
2 Bikes
Total £840
Cost of CV £285 (£100 Registration, £120 Annual plus £65 Associate membership - prices have gone up a fiver or so on each now)

Saving due to CV £300 off booking 1 plus £150 off booking 2, and everyone gets a £8 credit to the breakfast.

All in all a saving even if we don't go again this year, but as I said adding in Fuente de which cost me around 800euro for 3 nights increased the price of just booking 1 by more than that amount.

Still, can't wait to set off in about three weeks, 6 of us:- my 2005 GS, GSA TB ridden by a guy who has returned to boxers after k13 and k16, GSA TB ridden by a guy who swore he would never have a BM (cos everyones got one), GS Rallye ridden by a guy who passed his test September last, K13 (previously mentioned) ridden by brother of 1st TB, and a poor chap on a GSXR750 (hope he copes with the riding....)

Ten days, Picos, Pyrennes, Andorra then home, wonderful. Anyone else on the Portsmouth Santander May 18th?

 

[Davey B]

Our totals were £1340 and £690 but we only got 2 cabins...quite a squeeze. I must double check it the next time I use them tho

 

[Davel]

Four of us are booked one way from Santander 14 July to Portsmouth.

So four bikes, two larger outside facing cabins £1,036.00

Reduced from five and so dropped from three cabins to two, which I couldn't do on line, something to do wiht the ferry being fully booked and it thought I wanted to book, so rang Customer Services and they were great and sorted it in no time.

 

[mark-forrest]

Strange that CV didn't offer any benefit - you must have got a really good price to start with!
Break down of our trip/bookings
Booking 1
2 Cabins(4 berth but 2 in each)
4 Bikes
Total £1460
Booking 2
2 Cabins (2berth with one[snorers] in each)
2 Bikes
Total £840
Cost of CV £285 (£100 Registration, £120 Annual plus £65 Associate membership - prices have gone up a fiver or so on each now)

Saving due to CV £300 off booking 1 plus £150 off booking 2, and everyone gets a £8 credit to the breakfast.

All in all a saving even if we don't go again this year, but as I said adding in Fuente de which cost me around 800euro for 3 nights increased the price of just booking 1 by more than that amount.

Still, can't wait to set off in about three weeks, 6 of us:- my 2005 GS, GSA TB ridden by a guy who has returned to boxers after k13 and k16, GSA TB ridden by a guy who swore he would never have a BM (cos everyones got one), GS Rallye ridden by a guy who passed his test September last, K13 (previously mentioned) ridden by brother of 1st TB, and a poor chap on a GSXR750 (hope he copes with the riding....)

Ten days, Picos, Pyrennes, Andorra then home, wonderful. Anyone else on the Portsmouth Santander May 18th?

Yep me and my wife are on that ferry, look out for 2 loaded up VanVan's

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk

Posted to soon, we're actually travelling down on the 18th and sailing early on the 19th. Anyone on that ferry?

 

[Wonkey donkey]

@wonkey
I have two bookings total of 6 bikes(they can only cope with up to 4 bikes on a single booking)
Had it priced through club voyage, member plus associate member (apparently necessary)
Think we saved about 450 doing club voyage membership.

However, did try pricing to include three nights in Fuente de, one of their listed hotels (I’d actually already booked via booking.con)
The price for the first booking went from 800ish to 2100!, I didn’t bother asking them to check the second booking...

So it didn’t work out for me in this instance.

Good tip about booking table before sailing, ta

I wonder if it was because the dummy booking was end of Oct then so room on the ferry and able to source better hotel rates?

Using Bike shuttle to Geneva at the end of June but I do like the Santander Ferry as someone says it's day 1 of your holiday.

 

[Hustler]

I've found BF to be very helpful when I've had to make changes to a booking.

But I'll also add that when it's rough, it can be very, very rough.
I suspect the percentage of very rough trips is very low but on the way back from Santander last year
we only managed to leave the cabin when we were back in the English Channel.

Prior to that walking anywhere was simply not an option so we stayed in bed, strapped in.
There are straps on the bed to hold the bedding in place when the bed is fitted flush with the wall.
Top tip - if it does get rough use these straps to secure yourself in the bed.

Bon voyage.

 

[mikeyboy]

. Anyone else on the Portsmouth Santander May 18th?

Yep,
Me and the wifelet.
Black and yellow 1100 Gs